Mr. Personality

Oh, yes. Mr. Conrad is certainly starting to develop a personality. He's babbling and laughing, rolling after toys and trying to scoot around the floor. He's started taking baths with his big brother (thanks to this awesome invention) and he loves to kick and splash. Joseph kicks and splashes right back and it's a big old giggle fest in the tub (assuming everyone has napped well and one - if not both kids - are not near meltdown mode by bath time). His babbling is a little bit like screaming...

People ask me a lot if Joseph and Conrad have similar personalities. The answer is yes and no. No in the sense that Conrad is not bat.shit.crazy. Joseph is....oh goodness, it's honestly, hard to even describe Joseph. He's just more. More? What does that mean? He's a typical child but with more persistence, more energy, more passion, more zest for life, more ker-aziness than your average kid. He's just Joseph...and we love him...but we didn't need another just like him.

Luckily, Conrad is calmer. He can be quite content with a couple toys just watching Joseph and I build block towers. While Joseph was at school today, I laid toys out all over the basement, turned on some music and ironed for almost an hour while Conrad played with minimal fussing. I NEVER could have done that with Joseph. 5 minutes in and he would have been telling me in his infant way "Oh hellz no, lady, you best be devoting your attention to me real quick". Conrad wants to crawl - he gets up on his hands and rocks his little tushy - but when he realizes he can't do it yet, he just lays down and rolls. Joseph's failed crawling attempts ended with screaming and crying and utter frustration. Joseph has always jumped in to new things with both feet. He's never been hesitant about new people or places or experiences. New = fun and exciting. Conrad is more hesitant. He's wary of new people and crowded places make him visibly nervous. He does not like little old ladies all up in his face cooing. He's definitely the more cautious child.

How are they similar? Conrad is as perceptive as Joseph is. Joseph's scarily perceptive. My dad put a smoke detector up when he took a nap one day. He hadn't been out of his room 5 seconds and he was like pointing at it yelling "Oh, oh, oh...wuz that?" Joseph has an insane sense of smell. Rich was eating fries one night when Joseph woke up in his crib. Rich went in to settle him down and immediately Joseph starting yelling "FRIES!!!!". Joseph smells everything. He sniffs his clothes, his toys...definitely his food...which equals VERY picky eating. He chokes and gags if he eats something he doesn't like. Conrad is the same way. He completely dry heaved and vomited after getting a single spoonful of peas.

Conrad doesn't miss much either, which as we learned makes traveling and needing to share a bedroom with him slightly difficult. Rich and I couldn't go to bed while in Vermont without him waking up. Almost every night he ended up snuggled in bed with me for an hour before I put him back in his crib....Only to be awakened by him at 3 am pulling down the bumper, staring at us and squealing (as if to say - "Hey peeps, I see you over there. I'd like in on that snuggle action").

He's also quite energetic with his toys....like a certain somebody also was.

Although, he's got some work to do because I don't see him getting THIS crazy with an exersaucer anytime soon.

I did find Conrad like this this morning:

I fed him breakfast, cleaned it up, came back 3 minutes later and there he was...asleep. I can assure you that never happened with Joseph. If it had, I probably would have called 911.